Background: Older people are a major patient group seeking medical care in Sweden. Several of the elderly are living alone and the main reason for living alone is when the spouse passes away. Loneliness is a factor that can affect quality of life, health and wellbeing. Loneliness is an individual experience, loneliness can be self-chosen but involuntary loneliness can lead to lifelong suffering and feelings of loneliness. Aim: The aim of the study was to highlight the factors affecting loneliness among elderly people within municipal care living in Sweden.

This thesis studies if public libraries in Sweden have taken part ofinformation regarding the Swedish government policy that publicareas are to be made accessible by 2010. Also studied is thesignificance of information and resources on the execution ofaccessibility adaptations at public libraries.The analysis uses Lennart Lundquist?s theory of implementation ofpublic policies, that the person executing the policy needs tounderstand, be able to and want to in order for the policy to besuccessfully executed. The study was carried out through a surveyand the thesis focuses on the factors of understanding and beingable to.The survey was sent by email to all 290 municipal libraries inSweden with an answering frequency of 65%. The results arepresented in table format with explanations.The thesis finds that a clear majority of respondents have hadaccess to information about accessibility adaptations, but thatmuch fewer consider the information clear enough.

The purpose of the set of regulations as regards to accounting and auditing within the Union, is primarily to ensure a high quality of the large public companies financial reporting and hence protect the capital market investors. As the set of regulations also applies to the small companies, these are burdened by administrative costs that are disproportionate. To increase the competitiveness of the European companies, the European council has stated that it is essential to reduce the companies? administrative costs. The main principle is that all companies are under an obligation to statutory audit, however Member States may make audit exemptions for small companies.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the Swedish municipal welfare system, in their capacity as discourse makers, construct Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in the relationships of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people. A discourse analysis of their official plans of action regarding IPV and the information directed towards their citizens through their webpages showed that the discourse surrounding IPV revealed a gender dichotomy, where the victim was mainly constructed as being female and the perpetrator as male. As a consequence of this, gay and bisexual men were rendered invisible from the discourse surrounding victims of IPV, although they could be included in the construction of perpetrators of it. Lesbian and bisexual women were often included in the understanding of victims of IPV, but in the discourse surrounding perpetrators of it they were made invisible. The discourse about IPV also excluded the experiences and vulnerability of people who identify as being transgendered.

This study is based on discussions among Swedish brass teachers about teaching other brass instruments than their main instrument. Why do some choose to teach only with the help of their main instrument while others use their secondary instruments as well? What are the advantages and disadvantages and how do they look upon other ways of thinking in this matter?In addition, the study examines brass teachers? views on the balance between pedagogical and instrumental skill, as well as their views on teaching sound, technique and expression in relation to the age of the student.A questionnaire was used and anwered by 24 teachers with teaching experience in municipal music schools ranging from 7 months to 35 years. The results indicate that pedagogical skill is always important, whereas the importance of instrumental skill increases as the student gets older and more experienced. The advantage of teaching with the help of the main instrument is that one always keeps a high musical and technical level.

Politicians Week in Visby has since the late 1960s developed to be a fairly unique concept in Swedish politics, which even in recent years has begun to be exported to other countries in Europe. Curiosity and interest around the arrangement of activities and actors have in the past decade become increasingly both nationally and internationally. The purpose of this study has therefore been to find out how ?Almedalsveckan? as a political arrangement emerged and developed. The question that the study mainly tries to answer is how ?Almedalsveckan? became a concept of the open democratic meeting between politicians, citizens, journalists and various organizations in the Swedish society.

Under de senaste åren har samhällets oro för världens miljötillstånd växt och gett upphov till en så kallad grön marknadsföring. Miljö är ett svårt ämne att kommunicera på grund av dess breda omfattning och svårigheterna som finns med att förenkla informationen utan att tappa helhetsförståelsen. Stora samhällsaktörer såsom företag och statliga organisationer har ett ansvar för förändringsarbetet i och med att de kan visa vägen för en grönare social norm och kollektivt agerande. En kvantitativ studie av miljökommunikationsteori som den beskrivs i litteraturen har utförts, dess praktiska tillämpning har sedan undersökts kvalitativt genom fallstudier av två organisationers miljökommunikation. Studien söker svar på vilka skillnader som finns mellan företags och kommuners miljökommunikationsprocess samt hur den kan förbättras för att åstadkomma positiva beteendeförändringar i samhället och därmed ta steg mot en hållbar utveckling.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and clarify the facts surrounding one of Vattenfall's district heating plants; The "solar field" and associated rock cavern in Lyckebo, Storvreta. The plant was built in the '80s by the formerly municipal utility,Uppsalakraftvärme AB, as an experimental building. A ground water filled cavern would serve as seasonal storage of solar heat from an adjacent solar field. Since both the energy company and the facility itself has undergone major changes over the past 30 years, there was a great need to gather facts in order to provide a picture of its current condition and potential for continued use. The thesis investigates the plant's history and problems with the rock cavern losses, and how the operation developed. It also presents the calculations regarding the possibilities of again supplementing the facility with solar energy - which is not the case today - as well as the economic conditions for it. Regarding a re-launch of solar energy, primarily a concentrating solar collector has been studied, as it has the advantages of an integrated control system.

This masters thesis is a study of official political documents in order to discuss privatisation and the Swedish public libraries. In the 1990s public libraries became placed on contractors, and that was said to be one form of privatisation. The main issue for this study concerns driving forces and obstacles for privatisation of public libraries. Another issue concerns advantages and risks. We will also discuss how the future of public libraries will be in this context.

The purpose of this study is to describe how the employee appraisal is perceived by managers, employees and representatives from human resources departments. The empirical material con-sists of 15 interviews: respondents were two representatives of the human resources departments, four unit managers and nine employees who work at a state institution or municipal management. In the study, I adopt a sociocultural perspective, with the communicative relational perspective. The latter is a special education perspective in which the interpenetration of participation, com-munication and learning emphasized.The result shows that the majority of employees would like to see that the talks will be held more frequently than once a year. One of the managers has in cooperation with his co-workers devel-oped a model based on that each year, in addition to salary talks, have an individual conversation, a conversation with each group and individual follow-up talks.

Welfare is every person's right. To create conditions for a good welfare it requires coordinated strategic interventions at national and local level. Efforts must be politically supported to be able to strengthen public health. Local welfare management is a measure used to control and monitor public health. The purpose of this study was to investigate local actors perceptions of collaboration in strategic public health efforts with local welfare management in a municipality in central Sweden.

From the day we are born, we slowly grow old and sooner or later most people will have to use geriatric care provided by the community. In the Swedish model, society is responsible for the geriatric care, so the elderly can live a dignified, meaningful and active life. Home help insert activity is designed to help elderly get their social needs satisfied in the form of, for example, being outdoors, walk and visit a friend or some other form of social interaction. The study's purpose is to study how older people use and perceive bet activation in the municipal home care. To find out how this was conducted five interviews with older people who have help from home care to insert activation was made.

In 1974 the three municipalities of Åsele, Dorotea and Fredrika were amalgamated despite of hunger strikes, mass protests and a serious threat of violence. But after six years the marriage shattered as Dorotea left the other two after years of continued struggle. In 2005 the idea of an amalgamation of Åsele, Dorotea and Vilhelmina municipalities was brought to life by an older and ever declining population.By creating a democratic ideal type consisting of the three variables ? legitimacy, participation and identity ? this study assesses what impact an amalgamation of the three municipalities might have on local democracy.Combining a qualitative and a quantitative approach this study concludes that amalgamating the municipalities today could create a democratic unit lacking legitimacy, having a weak identity and impeding participation. But the study also brings forth that the impact of an amalgamation upon the variables of the ideal type as defined is not written in stone.

The work related illness has increased and instead of focusing on what?s causing it more and more efforts are put on trying to find the health factors within and outside the work environment. During the past years the term ?long-term health? has arisen; instead of focusing on the number of employees on the sick-list, the focus should be put on the number of employees that has a record of long-term health within an organization, i.e. health-presence.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the underlying causes for the opening of Karlstad Public Library. In doing so a theory based on the actor/structure model within social theory is used. The structures and actors are intertwined and therefore need to be analysed together. To do so the theory poses a series of questions that needs to be answered. The method used is document analysis.